Fairie Virus
by Layana Danare
Summary: Harry Kim is exhausted; the strain aboard Voyager has taken it's toll. But a new crisis prevents him from getting the rest he needs when he and one other member of the crew must save Voyager's crew from a deadly virus. Not sure what season. HarryOC
1. Danni Wix

"Report to the bridge at 1900 hours, Mr. Kim. Dismissed."

Captain Janeway waved her hand at the young Ensign tiredly. She had been up half the night worrying, as she often did, about how to get home. Harry Kim noticed the expression on her face, but he himself was too tired to care much about it. A few panels at his work station had been malfunctioning the day before, and he had worked at it for five hours without rest. _I need my down time_, he thought, _I can't worry about the Captain now._ He was slightly ashamed at his selfish thoughts, but he couldn't help it.

Harry stumbled past the others on the ship, trying to stay on his feet. The door to his room slid open and he fell into his room. The refresher beckoned to the left, but Harry was too exhausted to shower. His comfortable sleeping clothes called him from the closet, but the effort of even stripping off his shirt seemed too strenuous. He simply fell into bed, pulling the covers up and over his head, letting himself drift into darkness.

About three hours later, a banging on the door interrupted Harry's sleep. He groaned and tugged his blanket higher, trying to ignore the annoying sound. The banging ceased for a moment, but resumed again before long. Harry kept ignoring it, hoping whoever it was would give up and go away. They didn't.

Harry heard his friend Tom Paris uttering the override code to unlock the door. Tom burst into the room with a grin, "Harry, I'm not disturbing anything, am I?"

"No, no, nothing at all," Harry grumbled, pushing the blanket away. "What do you want, Tom?"

"I'm off for just three hours, but let's go do something," Tom said. "I'm not a bit tired, are you?"

"Nope," Harry replied with a glare.

"Great! Let's go, as soon as you get out of your uniform." Tom's eyes glanced skeptically at Harry's rumpled attire.

Harry sighed and reached for a new pair of clothes.

_"Mr. Vulcan, nice to meet you!" -- Neelix_

"So then there was this one time when she-" Tom broke off in the middle of his story, noticing that Harry was staring off into space, obviously not listening. "Harry!" He snapped in front of Harry, trying to get his attention. Harry jumped and looked back at Tom.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized, "I guess I wasn't listening."

"I guess," Tom rolled his eyes, but Harry didn't notice. He was looking over at something across the room. Tom followed his gaze, noticing the petite figure of a young ensign. He grinned, "Wix? Is that what's so intriguing?"

"You know her?" Harry frowned, trying to decide whether this new piece of information should make him happy, or upset.

"Eh, I know of her," Tom said, sipping his drink. "Five feet tall, blonde, freckles. Her full name is Danielle Olivia Wix, but people call her Danni. She loves the holodeck, especially the historical places you can visit there. She loves to swim and horseback ride. She's usually in Engineering, so B'Elanna would know her better than me," he finished with a grin.

Harry, who's eyes had been growing bigger and bigger with each piece of information, glanced at Paris, one eyebrow raised above the other. "It sounds like you know her pretty well."

"I read her profile."

"What?" Harry choked back a laugh.

"Hey, I was off duty when nobody else was," Tom defended himself, "and I was interested in blonde girls at the time."

"And what did you decide?"

"About Wix?" Tom's eyes twinkled. "She's cute, but she's not my type. Definitely not."

"I was under the impression that any pretty girl under the age of 30 was your type."

"Well, she's not."

"Why?"

Paris sighed, "Look, Harry, Wix is..." He trailed off, staring into the distance for a minute. "Wix is a little weird, or so I've heard. See, she's, well she's..."

"She's what?" Harry asked, beginning to be a little exasperated with his friend.

"Well, she's a fairie."

Harry stared blankly, as if he had no idea what in the world Paris could be talking about. "What?" he asked slowly, groping for more words.

Paris leaned forward, "you know your old earth mythology, right?" At Harry's nod, he continued, "well, it seems that a group of aliens who were able to fly, cast 'spells', and change their size at will somehow ended up on earth. Even though they had rules-much like the prime directive- forbidding them to interfere, they sometimes forgot to hide from us humans, and from there came the stories of fairies, dryads and pixies. Well, when their planet was discovered, the species wanted to be called "Fairies" after their old earth name."

Harry cast a glance at Ensign Wix, "and she's supposed to be one of these... fairies?"

"She most definitely is one of 'those fairies'." Paris leaned back in his chair. "And there's a lot of prejudice against them right now. They refuse to be admitted into the federation, and yet they trade with us and let us use their planet freely. Plus, a lot of the Fairies are just commonplace, the trash of the galaxy, you might say. No one has to work hard on their planet anymore, because everyone is rich there, and as a result they've gotten a reputation for being quite lazy."

"Is Wix?" Harry asked, trying to be subtle.

"We-ell, not that I know of. Most of that is probably just jealousy talking. B'Elanna talks about Wix sometimes. She says she's a good worker, but still, you never know." Tom downed the last of his drink. "I just don't know how much more my own rep can take. I'm already on a lot of people's bad side, especially the Marquis. I don't think it's a good idea for me to hang around a Fairie."

"Maybe not," Harry agreed, trying not to grin. He glanced across the room again at the slender ensign. "Too bad for you."


	2. Fading

Harry Kim entered the bridge to take his next duty shift, being a few minutes shy of having arrived on time. He had spent a little too much time talking to Tom Paris in the galley. Tom was incorrigible, Harry thought. On more than one occasion, Tom had kept him from his work. Not that Kim really minded, but he had been reprimanded before, and he didn't exactly feel like another talking-to just then.

Fortunately, Captain Janeway didn't seem to mind much, although she did glance meaningfully at the chronometer on the wall. Chakotay was the one who cast him a disapproving glance. Harry reported to his station in silence, pretending to check through the panel that had been malfunctioning the day before. Captain Janeway rose from her seat and wandered over to Harry's station.

"Is your panel in working order again, Ensign?" She asked. "I don't remember you telling me."

"No ma'am," Harry replied, sounding a little ashamed. He hadn't thought it important enough to bother the exhausted captain with. "I think it's in working order now. It just wasn't responding to anything. No scans, no calls, nothing. But I can scan the whole ship now, and out side of it, too. Everything is online."

"Good work, Ensign Kim," Kathryn Janeway said. "But next time, inform me of your progress."

"Yes ma'am," Harry mumbled. The captain turned away from him to glance towards the turbo lift, which had just brought a new personage onto the bridge.

"Ah, Wix," the captain greeted the blonde faerie girl. "It's quiet now, Lieutenant Kert has served his shift, and Paris is off duty. Why don't you take the con?"

Danni looked surprised. It was rare that she was asked to take the con. It just wasn't usually her station. She was more likely to take over for the communications officer, or perhaps, Ensign Kim. She stole a glance over at his station. He was looking down at his console, apparently intent on one thing or another.

"Ensign Wix?"

The captain's voice broke through her thoughts. She nodded hurriedly. "Oh, yes captain. Thank you." She sat down at her station and carefully ran her fingers over the controls. She knew plenty about the con from computer simulations, but not much from the real thing. She loved having new jobs. Well, sometimes. They could be challenging, and though she had been in Starfleet for several years, her easy upbringing sometimes got in the way of her wanting to work as hard as she should. It was true that most of the faeries had become trash folk; beings that decent people did not associate with. Indeed, she had encountered a stunning amount of criticism at the Academy as a cadet. She had been avoided, she had been bullied, and others had been prejudiced against her, but she kept going; especially with the help of one good friend. It was amazing to her how much good one person could do…

Harry Kim stood at his station, scanning and re-scanning the area in an attempt to block out all other thoughts from his mind. The scanners were blank. Nothing appeared. But wait! What was that flicker? Harry snapped to attention, peering at the scanner with eagle's eyes. Nothing. The scanner was blank once again. But there! Another flicker! There was something out there. Harry could not begin to guess what it was, but it was enough to attract his attention.

"Captain, I'm getting something on long-range scanners," the ensign said.

The captain glanced in his direction, her brow furrowing. "What is it ensign?" She asked.

"I'm not sure, Captain," Harry replied, shaking his head. "Something weird. I can't even get a lock on it, it keeps fading in and out as if…"

"As if?" Janeway urged him to continue.

"Well, it looks like it's just a freak. I don't know why in the world the scanner would be down, and it seems real enough…" Harry's voice trailed off once again.

"Well, ensign?"

"I'm sorry, Captain," Harry said, his voice sounding dejected. "I've lost it again. No, wait!" He stared hard at the screen. "No, it's gone. I can't seem to-"

"Captain!"

Janeway turned at the sound of Danni Wix's voice. She sounded surprised, and there was a tint of fear behind her eyes. She rose from her seat, looking down at her body. Janeway began to rise from her own seat. "Ensign, what is wrong?"

"I don't know, Captian," she said, trembling visibly. "Something's wrong. I'm tingling all over." She began to fade in and out.

"Stay still!" Janeway ran over to where Danni was standing. She made an attempt to grab her, but failed. Her hand passed right through the ensign. "Harry, someone is attempting to transport her off of Voyager. Can you get a transporter lock on her and hold her here?"

"I'm trying, captain," Harry said, beginning to perspire. He couldn't let her go, but nothing was working! "The computer won't lock onto her. They've gotten too far. The computer doesn't even register her as being on this ship."

"Harry, we're loosing her!" Janeway cried out. Chakotay sprang forward, grasping for Danni. In the moment that he did, she was solid enough for him to get a hold on her arm, but a blue lightning sent a shock through his body and he fell back.

"Captain, I can't-"

"Harry!" Danni screamed, and then she faded.

"She's gone!" Chakotay gasped, scrambling to his feet again.


	3. K'vosh

Danni Wix found herself materializing inside a place filled with white mist, much like a deep fog back on earth. She had apparently materialized in the air, with nothing to hold her up, so she fell to the ground. Scrambling to her feet, she looked around her, trying to discern one direction from another. She could hear something faint that sounded like voices, but indistinct. They faded and she wondered whether she had heard them at all. She stepped forward, holding her hands out in front of her blindly. She hit something. Running her hands up and down it, she determined it to be a wall. She followed it's curve, and discovered that all around her there was a circular wall. She pounded on it, but it would not give way. She felt all around the bottom, and reached as high as she could to the top, trying to find an opening. When she realized there were none, she began to yell into the whiteness.

"Hey! Is anyone here? Where am I?" She banged on her enclosure with her fists and straining to see beyond the misty blankness.

"Patience, little Faerie," an unfamiliar voice said. "We will let you out in due time."

Something-someone- emerged from the mists, driving it away with the sheer force of his will.He-Danni was sure it was a male-reached out and touched the transparent wall, causing it to dissolve. Danni, whose full weight had been pressed against the wall, fell forward. She pushed herself up.

"Who are you?" She asked, her voice challenging.

"I think the question is, who are you?" The thing said. "I brought you here. I demand to know who you are."

"Why does it matter?" Danni snapped. "I want to know what's happened to me."

"Nothing has happened to you, save that you've been transported to my vessel," the thing said.

"I'm contacting my ship," Danni turned away and tapped her comm. badge. "Wix to _Voyager_." Silence reigned in the mist. "Wix to _Voyager_! Come in _Voyager_!" Danni whirled back around to face the thing, stamping her foot on the floor. The noise sent a resounding echo into the mists. "What did you do to them?"

"I?" The being looked surprised. "I did nothing to them. They remain the same distance from my ship as they did when I transported you here."

"Why did you bring me here?" Danni asked, staring deep into the being's eyes.

"I needed you," the being said simply.

"You have to send me back," Danni said. "I can't stay here. They'll be worrying about me."

"We can't send you back," The thing said. We need you more than they do."

"You can't keep me here!" Danni yelled. "I am not like you. I need to go back to my people so I can function naturally."

"No, no," the thing shook it's head sadly. "We cannot allow a return to your people. Not yet, anyway. Not just yet."

"Well, when?" Danni asked. "When can I return?"

"All in due time, child," the being replied calmly. "All in due time."

"Don't give me that," Danni snapped irritably. "Just tell me why you beamed me off my ship. I can't imagine what you'd want with me. I'm just an ensign, and a new one at that. I haven't been on _Voyager _any longer than thirteen months. And this is my first assignment, too! I was a cadet at Starfleet Academy before this."

"That's no matter," the being told her. "It wouldn't matter if you were only a passenger aboard you ship. Come with me, and I'll show you what we needed you for."

The being drew something out from his pocket. "There is a matter of security," he said. "Stand still, and this won't hurt." He pressed down on the top of the bottle, which looked very much like a perfume flask, and a gas sprayed out. It filled Danni's eyes, ears and nose, so she was blind, deaf, and couldn't smell anything. A wave of sleepiness washed over her, and no matter how hard she fought it, she found herself slipping into a dreamless unconsciousness...

_"A stranger is a friend you just haven't met yet." -- Janeway_

"Harry, did you manage to get a lock on her badge before she was taken away?" Janeway asked the young ensign.

"Yes, Captain," he said, checking his controls. "I think I still have it, but it's not strong enough to beam her back here. All I know is that she's somewhere near that blip I was picking up a few minutes ago. It could be a vessel, captain."

"Likeliness of hostility, 90 percent, captain," Tuvok warned. "They beamed a member of our crew off of our ship without permission. I advise caution."

"I agree with you, Mr. Tuvok, but I'm afraid we may have to confront them openly," Janeway said. "This can't just be ignored."

"I agree, Captain," Chakotay said. "Paris, take us in closer to that blip Harry saw earlier. Warp factor two."

"Warp factor two, aye sir," Paris set his controls and the ship flew off toward Harry's blip. In less than ten minutes, the blip, which turned out to be a vessel, was in visual range.

"Slow to impulse power," Kathryn Janeway said.

"Captain, ensign Wix's signal is definitely coming from that vessel," Harry confirmed.

"Hail them," Janeway ordered. She placed her hands on her hips. "This is captain Kathryn Janeway of the federation starship _Voyager. _I belive you have one of our crew members on board your vessel. You beamed her aboard without permission. I must ask you to return her to our ship immediately.

The face of the being appeared on _Voyager_'s screens, "ah, my friends! I am K'vosh, the captain of the vessel."

"K'vosh, you have one of our ensigns," Janeway said. "We want her back. If you do not return her to our ship, we will be forced to beam over a search party to find her."

"Of course I will return her to you!" K'vosh cried. "I only needed her for a bit. To find out what kind of beings you were. You understand. She will be returned to you in short order."

"Thank you, K'vosh. But next time," Janeway said, "ask us before beaming any crew members aboard."

"Of course, captain! Of course!" K'vosh said lightheartedly. "End transmission."

K'vosh sat back in his seat. "Well, well, well..." He said slowly. "They want their girl back-" he laced his fingers together "- They'll get their girl back."

* * *


	4. Released

"Janeway to transporter room, do you have her, B'Elanna?" Janeway touched a hand to her forehead, warding off a severe headache. Now was not the time to break down.

"Yes Captain, he's beaming her over now." B'Elanna watched as the bluish electricity came through in the form of Danni Wix. Suddenly, the blue turned dark and gray, sparking and sizzling. "Captain, something's happening. I don't think his transporters are compatible with ours."

Chakotay jumped up from his seat and was into the turbolift before anyone could react. The doors closed and everyone heard the whoosh of the turbolift leaving bridge level.

"Captain, if I lose Wix, she might materialize anywhere. But no matter where anywhere is, she won't live long," B'Elanna frantically tried to adjust the controls as Chakotay came through the door. He elbowed her out of the way and took over the transporter station.

"B'Elanna, can you keep her in limbo long enough for me to hail the commander of the other vessel and try to resolve the situation?" The Captain asked.

"This is Chakotay, Captain," the Commander said, "I've got a solid lock on her now. I think I can pull her through. She's too far materialized to keep in limbo any longer. She's coming through. Either she'll be alive, or whatever we get back will be something that no one will want to see."

Janeway pressed her lips together. "I'm going down there." She stepped toward the turbolift.

"Captain, request permission to accompany you," Harry blurted out, feeling his cheeks flame up.

Fortunately, the Captain seemed to think nothing of it. "Of course, Mr. Kim."

Kim left his station to a redheaded Ensign and followed the Captain into the turbolift. The door closed and the turbolift shuttled through the ship. When it finally stopped, the door opened to the transporter room, and a very unconscious Ensign in the Commander's arms.

_"To the journey!"-- Tom Paris_

"Will she be all right, Doctor?"

Janeway looked up at the emergency medical hologram, her brow creasing in concern. She glanced at the still form of the Ensign covered with a blue blanket. Chakotay stood near her, but was looking at the Doctor. Harry glanced back and forth between them, standing near the Captain and shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.

"I believe so, Captain," the Doctor said, scanning the Ensign's body with his tricorder. "Her vital signs appear to be normal. Nothing wrong with her, except that she's unconscious, of course."

"And why is that?" Janeway questioned, cocking her head slightly.

"I would not expect less form someone who has been through the sort of ordeal you have described," the Doctor mused. "Not to worry, she'll be up and about in only a few hours. In fact, she'll be waking any minute now, but I'd like to keep her here for a while to run a few more tests."

"Doctor."

Chakotay's rich voice broke into the conversation and both Captain Janeway and the Doctor turned. Danni had pushed herself up on her elbows and was conveniently ignoring Chakotay's pressing hand on her shoulder.

The Doctor stepped past the Captain and Harry and helped Chakotay push her back onto the bed. "Now, now, you can't get up just yet."

"But I feel fine," Danni argued, but allowed the doctor to lower her to the bed again.

"I'm not so sure," the Doctor replied, shaking his head. "I want to run tests before I let you out of here."

"Come to think of it, I do have a splitting headache," Danni touched a hand to her forehead. Then she looked around, taking in the Captain, Harry and, last of all, Chakotay. The First Officer met her eyes and frowned slightly. Harry caught the blush that reddened her cheeks when Danni caught the scowl in Chakotay's brow.

"What are you all doing standing around here?" Danni asked in bewilderment.

"When an Ensign is abducted without a reasonable explanation, we make it a very important business to discover the reason," The Captain informed her seriously. She glanced at Chakotay. "The First Officer and I have to return to the bridge, but Ensign Kim will remain behind to question you about what happened over there."

"But Captain-" The Doctor spoke up, objecting strongly to the very idea!

Janeway held up a hand. "Doctor, we need to know why one of our personnel was kidnapped without any reason or warning. I understand your concern, but this has to be unraveled."

The hologram sighed deeply. "Very well, but if the investigation persists too long, I will have to terminate it."

"As you wish, Doctor," Janeway nodded to concede. She motioned to Chakotay, who took one last look at Danni and then headed out the door, following the captain.

Harry shifted uncomfortably as he looked back and forth from doctor to patient. Danni's eyes lingered on the door that had closed behind the Captain and the First Officer. The Doctor's holographic eyes were fixed intently on Harry.

At last the Doctor clapped his hands, "well, I was doing a little research on Vulcan skin afflictions. I suppose I'll get back to it." And with that, he disappeared inside his office.

Harry peeked at Danni out of the corner of his eye. She was biting her lip slightly, to keep from laughing. Or at least, that's what it looked like. Harry averted his eyes under the pretense of looking for a stool to sit on. He found one, in the leftmost corner of the room. Dragging it to the bedside, he faced the little faerie on the bed.

"Well, I guess I should-" Harry cleared his throat-"guess I should introduce myself. I'm Ensign Harry Kim."

"Danni Wix," the young woman said, raising one eyebrow above the other. "You're the operations officer, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," Harry replied. "This is my first assignment."

"Tough luck," Danni grunted, looking up at the ceiling. "First assignment and you get blown across the galaxy."

Harry nodded slowly. "Yeah, but I'm sure we'll find a way to get back. Someday," he added under his breath.

"Harry," Danni said with a slight frown, "We will get home."

Harry sighed and nodded. "So um, I suppose I should get on with the questions. Where were you when you realized that you were no longer on Voyager?"

* * *

_Okay, so this chapter was probably a little boring. Sorry, guys! Soon we'll get into the good stuff and it'll be action from there. =D_


	5. Convulsions!

Harry made his way through the decks of the ship, toward the captain's ready room. The ensigns nodded to him in the hall, and he politely nodded back. After two turbo lift trips and a few hallways later, Harry had arrived in front of the ready room. He rang to bell.

Captain Janeway looked up from the PADD she had been inspecting. "Enter," she said, her eyes locked on the doorway.

The door slid open and the young ensign stepped in, nodding to the captain. He stood in the doorway for a moment, feeling suddenly shy. Janeway made a gesture for him to sit down.

"Come in, Ensign," she said. "Can I get you anything?" She stepped to the replicator, her eyes still locked on Harry's young face.

"No, but thank you Captain," Harry replied, settling into the chair across from the Captain's chair.

"Coffee, black," Janeway said to the replicator, which complied with a small chirp and materialized the black coffee. Kathryn carried it over to the long table and perched on the edge of her seat. She took a sip of the coffee, and looked expectantly at Harry. When he didn't say anything, she sat back and folded her arms. "Well, what did you find out?"

Harry was galvanized into action, "Captain, from the way she tells it, all I see that was unusual was the alien's curiosity. She said that she was transported there, and he was apparently going to show her around, but of course he had security precautions so he used a tranquilizer on her. She doesn't remember anything after that, but remember we made contact not long after she was taken over, so it could be that they just didn't have time to revive her."

"She didn't see any other crew members walking about the ship?" Janeway asked.

"No ma'am, I asked her that and she insists that the only one she saw was the man we talked to over the view screen." Harry watched as the Captain rose and walked over to the huge windows on the side of her ready room. She slammed her fist down on the sill and turned around to face him, one hand resting on her hip.

"What is going on here?" She asked no one in particular. "This makes no sense." Harry couldn't help thinking that most things that happened aboard Voyager didn't make sense, but of course he didn't have the courage to say that as the Captain continued. "I need an explanation of this," she started to march to the door when a beeping sounded at her console. She stepped up to it and answered.

"Captain, please report to sickbay right away!" The Doctor said almost breathlessly.

"Doctor, I'm very busy right now," Janeway replied. "Can it wait?"

"I'm afraid not, Captain," the Doctor replied. "Ensign Wix went into convulsions about ten minutes after Mr. Kim left." Over the console they could hear sounds of Kes trying to calm the fairie down. The Doctor hurried on, "please, Captain, this is of the upmost importance."

"I'll be right there, Doctor," She said, shutting off the view screen. "Mr. Kim, come with me." Harry jumped up and followed Captain Janeway to the turbolift. The turbolift halted and opened to sickbay.

"What's the situation now, Doctor? The Captain asked the minute the doors opened. The Doctor gave her a look that said she didn't have to ask, as he was still trying to hold down the convulsing fairie.

"Why don't you give her a tranquilizer, Doctor?" Harry asked, stepping up to assist Kes in holding the Ensign down.

"Because the alien that she told you about was the one who gave her the last tranquilizer," the Doctor replied huffily. "Who knows what was in it? And who knows what another one would do to her? Besides, she's calming down a bit."

Harry glanced in alarm to the Captain, but continued to hold Danni down until her convulsions slowed and ceased. They all let go with a sigh of relief. The Doctor was shaking his head, however.

"I don't understand this," the Doctor said. "She seems to be perfectly fine one moment, and then she goes into convulsions the next. There was no sign of change in her vital signs." He checked the screen above the bed. "In fact even now nothing looks wrong, aside from the increased heart rate from the convulsions. No fever," the Doctor said, checking her temperature wonderingly. "And she has no record of epilepsy." He shook his head, trying to think of another explanation.

"Doctor, I want an explanation for this," Janeway said. "Run as many tests as you like. In the meantime I'm going back up to the bridge to hail that ship." She turned back to the turbo lift, stepping inside. "Mr. Kim, I need you on the bridge."

Voyager was hovering in the same place it had been ever since Danni had been transported off of the ship. The other vessel was hovering off the port bow, and remained on Voyager's visual. Captain Janeway arrived at the bridge and slid into her Captain's chair.

"Mr. Kim, can you hail them?"

"Yes ma'am," Kim said, tapping on his console. "I've established a link, Captain."

As K'Vosh appeared on the viewer, Captain Janeway rose from her seat. "Sir, we've experienced some trouble as we brought our crewmember back on board. There was a transporter incident and she has gone into convulsions-" Janeway heard Chakotay suck his breath in behind her "-if you have any explanation for these occurrences, I demand to know."

K'Vosh nodded slowly. "I am not sure what exactly is hap- hap- ennn- inng…" The transmission slowed, blurring the alien's voice and began to static. The transmission was cut short.

Janeway looked back toward Harry for an explanation. Harry shrugged his shoulders and looked down at his console. "Captain, that transmission was not cut short due to communications failure. He severed the connection and made it look like a comm. malfunction." He looked up, "he's a genius with it, Captain. Even _Voyager'_s updated sensors thought it was a comm. failure at first."

"Captain," Tuvok spoke up, "the ship is moving away at a speed that is approximately warp eight."

"Lay in a course to pursue, Mr. Paris," Janeway said, retaking her seat.

"Aye Captain, laying in a course to pursue and overtake," Mr. Paris wheeled his seat around to focus on the ship that was now seemingly _Voyager_'s enemy. He shook his head and sucked his lips in. "Captain, they're gaining velocity. I don't know if we can keep up with them." He turned to look at her. "If we follow them now, we'll be breaking Starfleet warp codes."

"Since when have you cared about Starfleet?" Chakotay asked, griping the handles of his chair.

"I don't, but I know that the Captain does," Paris replied, his eyes still fixed on the Captain.

"Slow down," the Captain instructed. "We'll pursue him at a pace that suits us until we lose his trail or get some answers."

"Captain…" Chakotay said softly. "Are you sure that's wise? How do we know there will even be any answers here to find?"

"I don't know what that being intended, but I'm betting on the fact that he'll be back," Janeway said. "He obviously knows that he can get away from us, so he'll have no fear that we are any threat to him."

"Whatever you say, Captain," Chakotay lowered himself back into his seat slowly as the rest of the crew exchanged nervous glances.


	6. Fairie Mystery

The doctor examined his datapadd, trying to find some clue of- what? Illness? Alien intruders? The hologram heaved a deep sigh. He had wracked his databases and had come up with little medical information on Fairies. What he had found had told him that on the Fairie home world, there was no more disease. They had built up a natural immunity to all of their diseases, and many of Earth's diseases as well. When they encountered a new illness, they reacted violently to it, often going into convulsions. Their much more resilient immune system allowed them to fight off the disease much fast than a human, however, as long as the high fever didn't kill them. But as far as the doctor could tell, they reacted to most diseases in much the same way: convulsions and a high fever. This gave him a wide, wide range of diseases to choose from, and made it difficult to study the illness should it be classified as a new one.

When the Fairie had gone into convulsions a second time, the doctor had withered and given her a tranquilizer. It had calmed her almost immediately, but her fever had shot up and was still rising. She slept peacefully, but beads of sweat stood out on her forehead and dripped down her face. Kes was standing nearby, conducting research while keeping an eye on the sleeping patient. She paused her work several times to adjust the temperature of the incubator on the bed. She knew as well as the doctor that it was better to try to find a way to combat the disease than to spend every moment hovering over the Fairie.

Danni muttered restlessly in her sleep and Kes looked up. She walked over to look at the Fairie's temperature, and noticed that it had not gone up since the last time she had checked. It was hovering in the same place.

"Doctor, her temperature has stopped rising," Kes called to the hologram. The doctor stepped out of his office and came to stand beside the bed. He peered closely at the monitor.

"Strange," he said. "Just when I thought we were going to loose her to the high fever, it stops rising." He tapped on his padd to enter this new information. "Keep watching her," he informed Kes. "If her temperature rises or drops, I want to know."

"Yes sir," Kes replied. The doctor returned to try to find something more about Fairies, and Kes stayed near to the screen to watch. She brought over her own padd and sat down on a chair nearby.

When she next looked over, she saw that the Fairie's temperature had dropped almost three degrees. She gasped and quickly turned the cooling agent off in the incubator, trying not to let Danni's temperature drop too fast. Danni's temperature stabilized and slowly came down to the regular warmth. Kes called in the doctor.

"I think her temperature is back to normal," She said, touching the Fairie's cooling forehead.

The Doctor looked at he temperature. "Ah yes, 99 degrees Fahrenheit. Slightly above the average human's temperature, but perfectly fine for the average Fairie. At least, that's what the databanks are telling me." He entered the information into his datapad and nodded slowly. "Well!" He exclaimed. "I suppose I should tell the Captain about this. Will you bring her back around, please? I'd rather if she was awake when the Captain comes back in."

"Yes, of course Doctor," Kes ran to find the injector. The Doctor headed back to his office to call the Captain.

"Captain, this is the Emergency Medical Hologram," The Doctor said. "I would like to see you in sickbay at the earliest oppertunity."

"Yes Doctor, I'll be down right away," the Captain's voice replied.

A few minutes later, Captain Janeway, Harry Kim and Commander Chakotay entered the sickbay. Harry immediately looked toward the bed, and couldn't help but let out a small sigh of relief when he saw Danni looking about with wondering eyes.

The Doctor turned to see them, "ah, thank you for responding to my call so quickly. As you can see, the patient is better."

"I see, doctor," the Captain tapped her lips with a finger. "Can you explain?"

"I'm afraid not, Captain," the Doctor said slowly. "I didn't even treat her. All I did was give her a tranquilizer and try to keep her temperature down."

"I can offer an explanation for that, Captain, although I'm not sure how encouraging it may be," Danni spoke up from the bed. Everyone turned to look at her.

"What kind of explanation, Danni?" Chakotay asked in his deep, gentle voice.

"Simply this: Fairies have unique immune systems that rarely need medicines to help them. They have grown and gotten stronger over the years until now we fight off almost any disease with extremely high fevers and often convulsions. But the disease blows over quickly, most of the time in a matter of hours. However, the symptoms for humans are usually quite different. For instance, if one of us were to get the ancient earth's disease Malaria, we would likely fight it off in much the same way I just fought off the disease I just had in a similar time frame. Humans, however, would likely experience vomiting, a deep chilling, in addition to a high fever and the disease would run it's course over several days." Danni took a deep breath, then bit her lip. "That makes it hard for doctors to figure out what disease we have, because we have pretty much the same symptoms every time."

The other five looked at each other. This meant that they would have no way to tell if the disease was potentially dangerous to the crew, or it's level of contagiousness. The Captain was the first to speak.

"Danni, I want you to stay in sickbay while the Doctor runs some further tests so we can try to figure out what kind of isease just afflicted you. In the meantime, we're pursuing the alien who kidnapped you. he may have some explanation. In fact, I'm betting on it."

"Do you think there may have been something in the tranqulizer he gave me?" Danni ventured to wonder.

"My thoughts exactly, Wix," the Captain gave a quick nod. "Doctor, I want you to try to trace the tranquilizer through Danni's blood stream. Find out what exactly was in it if at all possible."

"Yes, Captain, however, I must inform you that this will be difficult since I have pumped her full of my own tranquilizer. Mine may have already overpowered what ever he gave her."

"Nevertheless, that is the only lead we have to go on," the Captain said. "I need you to run the tests."

The Doctor sighed. "Of course, Captain."

"Meanwhile, the rest of us need to be keeping an eye on each other," Janeway said, putting a hand on her hip and taking a few steps about the room. "If any one of you sees another exhibiting symptoms, or what you would consider symptoms, of anything, them report it. It's too late for us five- Chakotay, Wix, Kim, Kes and I- to quarantine ourselves. If this thing is contagious, it's likely that we've already carried it throughout the ship. We'll have to be on our guard."

"Yes ma'am," Kim nodded soundly. Chakotay, Danni, and Kes followed his lead.

"Very well, then," the Captain said. "We must return to our duty stations."

"Captain, I request permission to say here," Chakotay spoke up. "As long as we are simply pursuing the alien who took Danni on board, I would like to wait here to report any unusual findings to you."

"No, Commander, I need you on the bridge," Janeway said regretfully. "Mr. Kim will remain behind and report anything out of the ordinary."

Harry bit his lip, but nodded willingly. He wanted to be where he was needed, and investigating a strange disease seemed to be the duty that demanded the most. The Captain and Chakotay departed for the bridge and left the doctor, Kes, and Harry to solve the mystery.


	7. Unconscious

After hours of work, neither the Doctor, nor Kes, nor Harry had been able to find anything. They couldn't locate any traces of the tranquilizer in Danni's bloodstream. And the Doctor was starting to think that they never would. Kes and Harry tried to be hopeful, but Danni was decidedly against the whole procedure. She insisted that they would not be able to find the cause of the disease because her immune system would have destroyed every possible trace of it already. Finally, the rest of them were forced to agree with her. Kes had to hurry out so that she could meet Nelix for a date, and the Doctor, fed up since he hadn't found a single thing, returned to his office.

Harry began to put everything away and Danni slid off the examination table to help him. She handed him all the equipment and he put it away in it's place. They were both silent, Harry out of nervousness, and Danni simply because she was thinking about the past few hours.

Harry at last spoke up, "so, I assume you're going to go back to your duties, now."

"I hope the Captain will let me," Danni replied. "There's no reason to keep me in here anymore if we can't find anything."

"But suppose you get sick again?" Harry asked, cocking his head. His black hair fell out of place. Danni hesitated just long enough for him to reach up and comb it quickly back into place.

"I won't," Danni reassured him. "And if I do, it won't take long for someone to find me. This ship is jam- packed with crew."

"You don't like it that way?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I prefer it quieter," Danni replied. "Or at least, in a larger space. My home world is so spacious, it's hard to get used to a crowded life aboard a starship."

"I see," Harry mumbled, putting the last piece of equipment away. "I think it's comforting to have so many-"

The ship suddenly jerked, sending both Harry and Danni toppling off of their feet. Danni landed hard on the floor, and Harry danced a bit on the rolling surface before toppling down almost on top of her. He caught himself on his arms before he squished her beneath him. The ship continued to jerk around for a few moments and Harry struggled to stay up, blushing as he saw Danni's surprised face beneath him.

When the ship finally stopped rollicking, Harry threw himself to one side and lay still, panting. He could hear the heavy breathing of Danni, laying by his side. The lights in sickbay had gone out and the emergency lights had not yet activated. Harry could hardly see in the dark room. He sat up and reached out a hand to find Danni. She found his hand and pulled herself up as well. Harry stood on wobbly legs and squinted as he searched the room for the Doctor.

"Doctor!" He called. "Are you still active?"

The room was silent except for their breathing. Danni's hand clutched his arm. The ship was silent outside the doors, but they soon began to hear shouts, people calling out to one another, trying to find someone to hold on to.

"Computer," Harry said in a firm voice, "emergency lights."

The computer beeped faintly and bathed the sickbay in a half- hearted red glow. Harry tried to turn on the EMH program manually, then shook his head gravely. "This isn't good. The doctor's offline and it doesn't look like we'll be getting him back any time soon."

"Can we get to the bridge?" Danni asked, sticking close to him as if she was afraid of being alone in the dark.

"I don't know if the turbo lifts have enough power to take us there, but we can try," Harry said, trying to weight his options. "If that doesn't work, we can crawl through the Jefferies tubes to get there."

"Let's go," Danni breathed. "It's empty in here."

Harry nodded and put his arm around the shivering Fairie. He felt a little awkward doing so, but she seemed to draw a little comfort from it. They headed out of sickbay and into the corridor. The turbo lift naturally did not have enough power to open it's doors, much less get them to the bridge. Danni bent down, removed a plate from the wall, and the two crawled into the maze of Jefferies tubes.

After a few minutes, they reached the bridge and opened the door manually. The darkened bridge was filled with smoke from an exploded console. Harry fleetingly hoped that it was not his. When he passed Tuvok's station, he knew it wasn't.

"Danni, find the emergency medical supplies!" He picked up the unconscious Vulcan's shoulders and dragged him away from the white hot console. Danni dashed to the wall and back with the medical supplies. Harry quickly applied salve to Tuvok's hands, where they had been burned in the explosion.

"That should do for now," he said, wiping off his hands on his trousers. "How are the others?"

"Still breathing," Danni said, walking over to check the Captain and Chakotay. She pulled Paris off of his work station and checked his pulse. "Paris is fine, too. They're all unconscious, though. Something must have hit the ship."

Harry headed to his own console and rerouted power to the visual. "If I can divert power from the lights for just a moment, I should be able to get a look at what's going on out there."

The visual crackled to life, but all they could see was a blank, gray cloud. Harry frowned. "Some sort of... gaseous formation. I don't understand. It doesn't appear to have unusual properties, really. Our sensors are having a hard time picking up anything, though."

"Do you suppose... What if the alien's ship is hiding in here?" Danni asked, cradling Paris' head in her hands to keep it from lolling to the side.

"That's a possibility. From what I've seen, his technology is much more advanced than ours." Harry made a clucking sound. "I don't know what he plans to accomplish by this."

"By what?"

"I don't know, whatever he's doing!" Harry exclaimed.

"Unhh.." The Captain groaned and shifted in her chair. Harry rushed down to help her. "Easy, Captain, easy. You're going to be all right."

Janeway opened her eyes, but they tried to close again. She forced them open. "What's going on?" She demanded, pulling herself upright. "I- oh!" Her eyes widened in surprise when she looked around at the crew members lying on the floor of the bridge. "Are they-?"

"No, Captain," Danni assured her hurriedly. "As far as I can tell, they're all still alive. They should be fine once they regain consciousness."

Janeway looked over at Tuvok, who was lying in the same place Harry hd set him down. "Tuvok," she moaned. "His console exploded-"

"He's all right, Captain," Harry soothed her. "His hands are burned, but other than that he's okay."

"What happened, Captain?" Danni asked gently. "We were in sickbay and the lights suddenly just shut off. Most of the systems are offline. The EMH isn't functioning, and neither are the turbo lifts."

"We entered some kind of gaseous formation," Janeway said, trying to sit up straight. "We didn't realize that our sensors would be affected by it until we entered. When we tried to back out, something hit us, and we couldn't trace it's source. It felt like something fired on us, but we couldn't detect anything on sensors. Tuvok tried to reconfigure the sensors to trace the source, but when he thought he had it, his console exploded. Then something else hit us and... That's all I remember."

"We need to get you to sickbay, Captain," Harry said, sliding his arm around her waist and putting her arm over his shoulder. "Danni, can you look after the others? I'll try to find someone who's uninjured and get them to come up here and help you. It looks like the entire bridge crew is going to need to pay a visit to sickbay."

"I'll treat them with what we have here until you can bring them all to sickbay," Danni replied. "But you can't even get the Captain out of sickbay until you get the turbo lifts working. Or were you planning to drag her through the Jefferies tubes?"

Harry bit his lip. He hadn't thought of that. He slowly lowered the Captain back into her chair and stood up again. "I'm going to try to get a hold of B'Elanna in engineering. She might be able to reroute some of the systems."

All right, but be prepared to have to do it yourself," Danni said. "The comm. system might not be working either."

"You're right," Harry sighed. "Kim to Torres." He clucked his tongue when there was nothing but silence to answer him. "B'Elanna, are you there?" He shook his head and turned to his console. "Internal sensors are still online," he said, sounding slightly surprised. "There's a hull breach on deck 14. I'm reading no life signs." He looked up and Danni met his eyes for an instant. He knew they were both wondering who had made it out. Harry rapidly readjusted his eyes to the console. "I'm going to divert what's left of the power there to the turbo lifts. If you can help me get as many people as you can into the turbo lift, we can take them down to sickbay."

Harry once again helped Captain Janeway to her feet, trying to get her to walk part of the way to the turbo lift. Avery occupied herself with trying to bring Chakotay back to consciousness. He at last came around, at least partly, and she helped him walk to the turbo lift, laying him down gently on the hard floor, touching his forehead gently to calm his harsh breathing. Harry needed her help lifting Tuvok, so they carried him to the turbo lift together. Danni attempted to carry one more ensign, but when she was halfway to the turbo lift, she felt the life drain from the young man. She almost dropped him like a hot potato, but instead carefully lowered him down and folded his hands together, then retreated back to Harry's side and helped him with the last person on the bridge, Tom Paris. Harry looked over at the dead ensign, then squeezed his eyes shut. He felt fingers squeeze his hand and looked up to see Danni give him a look that told him to keep going. They got on the turbolift together and rode down to sickbay. The turbo lift was slightly slower than usual, but it got the job done and soon Danni and Harry were pulling people onto beds, covering them with blankets. When all of them were lying still without groaning, Harry slumped into a chair, digging his fingers into his hair and raking it back. Danni stood by, not knowing what to say.

"I don't know what we're going to do if the rest of the ship is like this," Harry muttered bitterly. "We can't care for everyone ourselves."

"Harry," Danni reached out to touch his black hair, but stopped and pulled her hand back. She continued in a more firm voice, "it doesn't matter what we think we can do, what matters is duty." She patted his shoulder. "Besides, I won't have you breaking down or giving up. I'll probably need to cling to you again in a moment. Who knows what we'll find on the other decks of the ship?" She tried to offer a reassuring smile, but felt she was failing miserably. Harry looked up at her words, though. He nodded stoutly.

"I'm going to go search the halls, and I'll bring back as many as I can. There's got to be a few people still conscious. They can help set up the sickbay for the injured."

"Be careful," Danni warned. "I don't know what's going on here, but it's not good. If you don't come back in an hour, I'm going to start to get worried." She paused. "Acutally," she added, "I'll be worrying the moment you step out of sickbay."

Harry stood up to leave, but he turned back to look at her. "Don't worry," he told her, "I'll be fine." He hesitated, then reached out and pulled her to him. He felt her tense, and then slowly but surely relax. He let her go and cleared his throat, looking down at the floor. Neither of them spoke for a moment, then Harry took a step backward. "Well, I'll be back later, then." And, turning on his heel, he left the room with a shivery feeling somewhere next to his heart.


	8. Hasty Kisses

"This isn't good."

Danni showed Harry her tricorder. "You were right, there is definitely some sort of virus working it's way through the crew. Tuvok just lost consciousness as I was feeding him. Chakotay has been in and out for nearly three hours now, and Paris hasn't been conscious for at least two."

"I know," Harry's voice was grim. "The three men who haven't stopped working due to exhaustion just brought in B'Elanna. I had to clean her up, it looked like she had been sick in her stomach, just like everyone else around here. The three men who did stop working are now completely incapacitated. They've been retching and losing fluids just like everyone else. Some of them are starting to talk in their sleep, but the words don't make any sense. They're also running very high fevers."

"I think Tuvok is in an extreme amount of pain," Danni informed him. "I've heard him cry out several times, and his face is completely distorted. Even in his unconscious state, he's trying not to show it. I know Vulcans try to suppress pain, even the relatively minor pain that a fever and dehydration might bring, but I think suppressing it is doing more harm than good. It's intensifying as he blocks it, trying to get past his barrier."

"Do you have any ideas on how to combat this?" Harry asked.

Danni shook her head, "no, not really. This could be nothing more than a simple fever and stomach virus. I'm not sure how to diagnose it yet. We do have to keep their temperatures down, but we'll have to be careful. Most of the ones that are conscious are hot one moment, then cold the next. If it's too cold in here, and they start feeling chilly, who knows what could happen?"

"We can reset the environmental controls to make it colder in here for the time being," Harry said, tapping on one of the consoles they had managed to get back online, along with the environmental controls and the replicators in sickbay. "But we'll be cold because we don't have a fever."

"We'll have to replicate jackets," Danni replied matter- of- factly.

"But that would take several days worth of replicator rations!" Harry exclaimed.

"Harry, half the ship is probably no longer using the replicators anyway. I understand your concern, but at the moment lives are more important than replicator rations."

"But our lives aren't at risk," Harry pointed out.

"True, but if we operate at anything less than peak efficiency, we could be endangering a few lives," she said, stepping over to the replicator.

"Two jackets," she told the computer. "Check Ensigns Harry Kim and Danielle Wix's profile for sizes." The computer beeped a soft reply and slowly revealed the jackets. It was not quite operating as best as it could. They were lucky that it had come back online at all.

Danni handed one of the jackets to Harry, and pulled the other one on. "Now, reset those environmental controls," she said. "The ones with the fever are going to need it. And as for those who don't yet... well, they'll need it soon enough."

"_Mr. Paris, set a course ... for home."-- Captain Janeway_

"Stardate ____, the rate of illness on Voyager has skyrocketed in these last four days. Almost every single crewmember is down with fever and such. Ensign Kim and I barely have time to rest with our rounds about the ship. We've been able to fit most everybody in sickbay and the mess hall. Our entire day is filled up with running back and forth between the two decks. We've barely gotten any rest, but we're continuing to battle this virus that seems to strike young and old. However, we've been so busy just keeping everyone alive that it's hard to find a spare moment to find a cure."

Danni shut off the log. She leaned back in the doctor's chair, and her eyes fluttered. She jumped up and retreated back into the sickroom. Now was not the time for rest. The still dark room was filled with the sounds of coughing. Danni sighed as she rinsed a wet cloth for one of the young men's foreheads. When she touched his cheek, she knew he was running a fever of 104 or over. Most of the others in the room were not in much better shape. They were lucky that they had not lost anyone as of yet.

The Captain moaned softly and Danni turned to her. "I'm sorry it's come to this, Captain," she whispered in the suffering woman's ear, "but Harry and I are doing the best we can."

The Captain didn't seem to hear her, and slipped back into a fitful sleep.

The door swished open and in walked Harry. He looked exhausted and desperate.

"Danni, we just lost the two men who were still healthy," he said haltingly. "They've come down with it."

"Is anyone-"

"No, everyone's still breathing. Well, trying to, anyway. Kes can't breathe unless she's sitting up, and that's uncomfortable, not to mention difficult, for her. Neelix isn't feverish yet, just sick to his stomach, and he insists upon attending to the rest of the sick. He's dragging himself through the rows on his elbows," Harry sat down and ran his fingers through his ragged hair. "I'll be amazed if he doesn't kill himself, exerting his body like that."

Danni tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. She wordlessly held a cup of water to Chakotay's lips. It overflowed to his nose and he sputtered and coughed. She reacted quickly, sitting him up so that the fluids wouldn't go down to his lungs. When he seemed to be breathing normally once again, she laid him back down, gently stroking his graying hair.

"I don't know that we're doing much good like this," Danni ventured slowly. "I mean, we're keeping them alive, but they're not getting any better. They're not getting much worse, but steadily their bodies need more and more water. There's no way we can keep this up."

"I know, but we don't have time to research at all," Harry said. "It takes us the whole day just to clean everyone and keep them cool!"

"That's exactly what I noted in the log," Danni replied, shaking her head. "But what I can't figure out is, why aren't you getting it? Why haven't you been infected?"

"I don't know, I haven't really thought about it," Harry replied. "I mean, I guess I've thought about it a little. But not much, really. There's not much you can think about when you're trying to focus on keeping a whole star ship of people alive."

"I know, but next time we have a free moment, I want to check you over," Danni insisted. "Maybe you had some kind of illness that overrides this one. Or maybe you've had this one."

"Now how can I have had a disease that originated in the Delta Quadrant?" Harry exclaimed.

"I don't know!" Danni said, folding her arms across her chest. "It's just a thought."

"I know," Harry replied. "But it's kind of a strange thought."

"It just doesn't make sense that every other human on the ship has been taken sick, and you haven't," Danni said, the musing going on inside her brain showing on her face. "If you were some kind of unusual species, I wouldn't be wondering." She looked at him closely, "you don't have any unusual alien blood in you, do you?"

"No, just human, as far as I know, anyway," Harry replied.

"Well, we don't have time to think about it right now," Danni replied. "It's your turn to take care of the ones up here, and I've got to get down to the mess hall."

"Just watch out for that psychotic Talaxian down there," Harry warned her. "He probably won't talk to you at all, he just wanders around among the sick and gets them to drink."

"I'll be careful," she replied. "And I'll try to get him into bed before he collapses. Oh, make sure you-"

The sound of a dry-heave in the corner brought both of their attention. Danni leaped toward the woman and pulled her up. She led her out of the sickbay and down the hall to where the restrooms were. The woman clung to the bowl with Danni stroking her back to soothe her. When she finally vomited, Danni washed her face and gave her another cup of water to drink to cleanse the taste from her mouth. She carefully put her arm around the woman's waist and tried to lead her back to the sickbay. The young woman's knees buckled and Danni's own joints groaned under the extra weight. She dragged the woman back to her pallet and laid her down, mopping the dripping forehead and moving on to the next victim. She would have to wait a bit before heading down to the mess hall. She filled another cup with water and held it to the gasping man to drink. His gray hair was scraggly and his growing beard gave him a ragged appearance. He drank the water readily, but he didn't seem to see Danni, his eyes searching the room with a bewildered look and his lips constantly muttering words in between gulps.

"Harry, are you all right?" Danni asked, her eyes focused on another contorted face. She looked up when he didn't reply, and noticed that he was hanging onto the edge of a bed, his face turning gray.

"Harry!" She jumped up and caught him as he fell. His head lolled against her shoulder as she fumbled with his collar, trying to make it loosen. He gasped and came to as she finally got it loose.

He leaned forward, coughing harshly. Danni smoothed the hair out of his face, trying to calm him. He leaned against her, his breathing taking on a rasping sound. She rocked him gently until he pulled away.

"I-I'm sorry," He whispered hoarsely. "I just couldn't stay standing any longer."

"You scared me for a minute there, I thought you had come down with the sickness," She said, touching his cheek.

"I'm sorry," Harry repeated. "I'm so tired."

"I know," Danni replied. "We're both exhausted. It's been 120 hours since the disease first struck, and we've barely had time to rest in all those days, just snatches of half an hour or hour naps. I'm surprised we haven't cracked before this."

Harry rocked and clung to her sleeve, trying to stay upright. "You need to sleep," he managed to say. "I can see the rings under your eyes."

"Are you kidding me? You're the one who needs sleep," Danni said, tucking her arm around his waist. "I mean, I wouldn't mind it myself, but I'm not the one falling over right now."

"But you were sick just a few days ago," Harry said. "Add to that the fact that you've hardly eaten anything at all in the past 48 hours and you're still pretty weak."

"I know," Danni admitted. "But one of us has to watch out for the others, and it can't be you if you're going to be fainting from exhaustion." She helped Harry up as best she could and led him over to a corner where she could just barely squeeze him in. She went to the replicator, replicated a blanket, and returned to lay it over Harry.

"You replicated this?" Harry exclaimed, fingering the patterns on the blanket.

"Yes, I did," Danni said, wrapping it around him. "On ancient earth, the women used to make these. They called them quilts." She knelt down beside him and smoothed his forehead once again. "I hope it keeps you warm enough."

"I'm warm enough," Harry replied.

"Good," Danni said, leaning in closer. "Harry," she whispered. "I've watched you for a long time."

"Yeah?"

"A long time," Danni said again. "And..." She trailed off, letting her words hang in the air as she brushed her lips against Harry's lightly. He was startled by the kiss, but couldn't do much to stop her with his hands tucked tightly beneath the quilt. Danni paused for a moment, then kissed his cheek.

"That's what I think of you," she breathed, and Harry could feel the gentle heat on his ear when she whispered into it. They were both silent for a moment, Danni still leaning over him, a hair's breadth away from his lips.

"I have a-" Harry hesitated slightly, wondering if he should tell her about the one thing that was bothering him "-a girlfriend," he finished. "Back on earth."

Danni sat back on her heels, looking pale in the darkness of the room. Harry heard her take in her breath sharply and saw her clasp a hand over her mouth.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice sounding pained. "I shouldn't have- I got carried away. I'm sorry." She rose before Harry could say anything to reassure her, and he heard the door to sickbay open and close as she left the room to compose herself.

Danni sank again the wall outside in the corridor, resting her back and head against the cold walls. She could feel hot tears of frustration welling in her eyes and she angrily fought them back. How dare they try to make her any more miserable! Her hands fiddled with each other and she tried to calm her breathing. She wondered just how idiotic Harry Kim thought her now. All of it was wasted now. The friendship that they might have had, the bond that they might have formed from this crisis, all that was gone. She heaved a big sigh, trying to bring more air into her lungs. When she forced it out again, it come out more as a sob. Why was she so hasty?

And yet, she would never have taken that kiss back, had she been given the opportunity to. The feeling on Harry's soft lips under her own was one she never would have known, had it not been for her rash decision.

Danni forced herself to stand again. Crying over one of her failed romances was not helping the Voyager crew. She and Harry would still be working together, no matter how awkward.


	9. Victims of an Experiment

Danni looked down at the softly bleeping console. It looked like it was about to go out of power. Danni banged it with her fist. Nothing could be worse. They needed the console not only because they had to do research on Harry, but because they had also rerouted the bridge controls there. If they lost that console, they would lose control over the communications, what little maneuverability the impulse engines still had, and life support on all decks. Danni broadcasted one last distress call.

"This is the star ship Voyager. If you are receiving this, please help us. Our entire crew, except for Ensign Harry Kim and myself has fallen deathly sick. Our power systems are failing. If anyone is out there- anyone at all- please respond."

The console sighed and sent out the distress call. But Danni knew it would only be a matter of time until life support failed and they would die not because of the illness, but because of lack of oxygen. Still, she continued to tend to the sick. She had made three trips down to the mess hall, and had discovered that a few of the sick had been walking in their sleep. Mr. Neelix had collapsed, and was no longer able to move.

When she had returned to sickbay, Tuvok was walking around, peering closely at all the faces and whispering unintelligible words. She had sent him back to bed, but the most terrifying part was hearing him laugh to himself. Vulcan's didn't laugh. Danni was sure he was going mad from the pain he was experiencing.

Harry finally jerked awake in the corner when he heard Danni setting up the distress call. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he couldn't. Instead, he pulled himself out of the blanket and stood up, rubbing his eyes.

"Harry, I didn't wake you," Danni said when she turned around to see him standing there.

"I can't sleep anymore," Harry replied. "I heard the distress call you sent out."

"I don't know that there's anyone around to pick it up, but I had to send it out," Danni said, shrugging. "I mean, we've got to keep trying. What other choice do we have?"

"Well, it's your turn to rest, anyway," Harry said, motioning toward the quilt. "I can take the watch for a few hours."

Danni didn't argue. She was too worn out to argue even if she had wanted to. Instead, she simply crawled under the quilt in the corner.

"Danni, Danni! You've gotta wake up, someone's hailing us!"

Danni opened her eyes groggily. Harry excited face hung over her, and he was shaking her arm with more vigor than she thought he had left. She jerked it away, frustrated at being woken up.

"Stop that, I want to go to sleep," Danni snapped.

"Danni, we're being hailed!" Harry told her, emphasizing the word "hailed".

Danni threw the blanket off of he legs. "Well, what are you waiting for? Answer it!"

Harry rushed back to the doctor's office where the console they had repaired still bleeped softly. Harry quickly turned to viewer on. "This is Ensign Harry Kim of the star- you!"

The image on the screen was of the alien who had likely started all the trouble for them. He waved his hand. "Yes, yes, and you know who I am. I picked up your distress call, and I had to come back to express my gratitude."

"Gratitude?" Harry asked, his expression changing from one of anger to one of puzzlement. "I don't understand, why would you express ycaour gratitude?"

"No, of course you don't understand," K'Vosh said, rolling his eyes. "How would you guess that you're part of an elaborate experiment?"

"What?" Harry's dark eyes glared at the screen. "You had us preforming for you like guinea pigs?"

"I am not familiar with the- thing of which you speak, and you were not exactly 'preforming' for us," K'Vosh said slowly, a glint in his eye mocking them. "You see, we have been at war with our enemies for ten of your years. They have an enormous army, and we have been greatly outnumbered for the major part of the war. Their old men still live and their young men are growing up to join the war. We needed a weapon that would wipe at least half of their army out. And now I think we have it."

"You've infected us with this... disease," Danni realized, her eyes sparking. "It infected everyone so quickly and had it not been for Harry and I, they would have died."

"Yes, that was exactly our intention," The alien said, inclining his head slightly. "In fact, we've tested out the disease on several different species. We led all of them here, and the gaseous formation disabled their sensors. We shot at their ships to keep them in one place and left them to die. All of them were dead within five days. You have lasted longer only because your Ensign seems to have a natural immunity to the disease. Likely it is he who has kept your spirits up and helped you continue on."

Danni was silent, sending bolts of fury through her eyes.

"And you will die soon enough," K'Vosh continued. "We will leave you here and return to our home base. We must get this processed and release it on our enemies. Thank you, my dear, you were the perfect person to infect."

"Why me?" Danni demanded. "Why did you choose me?"

"Because Fairies resond the same way to a number of different diseases," K'Vosh explained patiently. "And they spread the disease quite easily to other species, you know."

"How do you know that?" Danni cried. "There are no Fairies in the Delta Quadrant!"

"Of course not," the alien replied with an impatient sigh. "But Fairies used to be more supernatural, did they not? They used to possess powers greater than any you could imagine. There are Fairies not far from here, you know. On a planet more beautiful than any I have ever seen. We tested our disease on one of their ships. They all died from the convulsions. You are lucky that you had friends to keep your fever down and help with your convulsions."

"I don't suppose there is any way we can come to an agreement," Danni suggested hastily, not wanting to hear about the horrific death of the Fairies. "We can pay you, give you technology, if you help us and give us the cure to this disease."

"No, I'm afraid I can't do that," K'Vosh replied. "I think you technology is too damaged to be of any use to us. Farewell, Fairie. Have a good death."

The view screen went black and Danni slammed her palm down on the table.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked as she stalked out of the office, following her with his eyes.

"If he won't help us, then there's only one thing left to do," Danni replied, grabbing a tricorder.

"What's that?"

Danni began scanning him. "To start that research."


	10. Curing

_Sorry it took me a bit to get this posted, guys. It kind of didn't make any sense at all the way I wrote this thing at first, and it's not like it makes thaaaat much sense now, but I'm hoping that starfleet's superior medical knowledge will cover for me. =D)_

After three hours, Danni had found nothing in the way of a cure. Both she and Harry were anxious to get back to caring for the patients, but they both knew that the research to heal them was more important. Harry sat still, twisting his fingers, as Danni started yet another test on him. At last she set the tricorder down with a sigh.

"I can't find anything," she admitted. "You have a normal number of red blood cells, no unusual brain activity, no stimulants in your blood… You haven't got anything that I can imagine would cause you to be immune to this disease." She closed the tricorder. "Did you have any unusual diseases as a child?"

"I had… Jensky's Ague, but that's nothing unusual," Harry said, shrugging his shoulders. "Most of the crew has had that at one time or another. I've had plenty of colds, but I was vaccinated for 'most everything else," He said, trying to think. He concentrated hard and then- "wait!" He said excitedly. "Wait, I did have something strange. I remember my mother telling me about it. I caught the chicken pox when I was about three years old."

"Chicken pox?" Danni's brow wrinkled. "But that has been nonexistent for nearly 200 years!"

"I know," Harry replied. "At least, that's what they thought. But I caught it. It was relatively easy to treat, and my mother told me that I was completely well within three days."

"Harry!" Danni exclaimed. "Maybe your antibodies and white blood cells have some sort of immunity to this disease. Maybe the information about the chicken pox in your immune system has enabled it to keep this disease out."

"That would be a one in a million chance, Danni," Harry pointed out. "And besides, what are you going to do, replicated my white bloods cells and antibodies?"

"Exactly," Danni nodded determinedly. "There's no guarantee that this'll work, I know. But if you're the only person on this ship to have had chicken pox, which it's a sure bet that you are, then maybe your immune system is able to keep this disease out because of that."

"That's odd," Harry said, shrugging. "But it's a start."

Danni gathered white blood cells and antibodies from Harry's bloodstream with the injector set to reverse. Taking it over to the replicator, she commanded the system to make her a replica of the contents of the injector. It half-heartedly made an effort to replicate the contents, but fizzed out, retracting the nearly-formed vial.

"Great!" Danni shouted, stopping herself from slamming a fist into the replicator.

Harry clenched his jaw. "We're going to have to take this one step at a time. I'll shut the console in the doctor's office down for a moment, and then you'll have to replicate my blood cells and antibodies fast. We can restart the console in a few moments."

"But you might not be able to start it again," Danni said, twisting a strand of her hair behind her ear. "If you shut down the system, it might be hard to get it running again."

"I know, but if the console is drawing too much power for the replicator to start up, then you might have trouble replicating your antibodies and white blood cells."

Danni sighed. "All right, but if it takes me too long, we'll have to terminate it and try again. I don't want that console shut down for more then five minutes."

"It shouldn't take the replicator that long to replicate it," Harry reasoned.

"All right then, hurry up and shut it down," Danni said, sending Harry skittering to the office to reset the console. A few moments later, the replicator hummed softly, restarting. "One vial of the contents of this injector."

The replicator hummed for a moment, inspecting the contents of the injector. Then a small vial formed. Danni reached out with a trembling hand and grabbed it. "You did it," she said softly.

"You did it," Harry said. "I only got the replicator working."

"We both did it," Danni argued. "Now, who are we going to test this on?"

Harry stared at her, not comprehending her words for a moment. Then he groaned. "Oh no, not another big decision."

"Who will we test it out on?" Danni repeated. "If anyone were in their right mind, I'd ask them, but I don't think anyone is."

"Test it on me," a halting voice insisted. "You can test it on me."

Danni and Harry both turned to see Chakotay propping himself up on his elbow, obviously barely able to keep himself upright.

"But, commander!" Harry seemed at a loss for words.

"Look, you've got have someone-" Chakotay slumped back down on the bed, his arm no longer supporting him.

Danni bent over him, grabbing one of his hands. "But you're our first officer, we couldn't do without you."

"I can think of quite a few people on this ship who would be happy to do without me," Chakotay informed her.

"I couldn't do without you," Danni said stubbornly.

"Yes, you could," Chakotay told her. "You did without me when I joined the Maquis."

"That was years ago," Danni said. "And I knew I could choose at any moment to rejoin you."

"Danni, you need someone to test the serum out on, and I'm volunteering," Chakotay said. "If you don't test it, we're going to die anyway, either from the sickness or from life support failure."

Tears pooled in Danni's eyes, but she nodded to Harry to put some of the serum in the injector. Harry did as she wished, and handed it to her. Danni squeezed Chakotay's hand, bit her lip, and injected the virus into his neck. Chakotay settled back onto his pillow while Danni stared. Chakotay slipped back into unconsciousness and still Danni watched his face.

"Danni, you can't expect it to work right away," Harry said. "Go lay down again, and I'll watch out for him. If there's any change, good or bad, I'll let you know."

Danni didn't respond, but returned to the corner with the quilt and pulled it up over her head. Had she not been so fatigued, she would never have been able to fall asleep.

"_I think I'm in love." -- Tom Paris_

Danni awoke in much the same scenario as the last time, with Harry's excited face over her. But this time he was laughing and crying and had lifted her shoulders half up off of the ground. She tried to push him away, to get him to calm down so that he could tell her what the verdict was, but he couldn't speak.

"Harry, what is it?" She asked. "Is Chakotay-"

"He's well! He's well! It only took an hour for the serum to start working on his bloodstream, and after another two hours, he's completely well! He's a little weak, but I replicated some soup to feed him and he's wanting more."

Danni grabbed Harry's shoulders then, her face lighting up with pure joy, "Harry, we're going to live, we're gonna get out of here!" She leaped up, rolled the quilt up and handed it to Harry. Harry set it down and followed her to Chakotay's bed.

"Hi," Danni said, touching the tattooed forehead. "You're looking better."

Chakotay only smiled for a minute. "I've been feeling better," he said slowly.

"You don't say," Danni replied, feeling as though her heart would burst. She hugged the first officer and turned back to flash a grin at Harry.

"What are you waiting for?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips. "Get more injectors filled with samples of that serum!"

"Yes ma'am!" Harry said, feeling rejuvenated for the first time in days.

"You should start with B'Elanna," Danni suggested. "We'll need her to get the warp core reactivated."

"I'm on it," Harry replied. "And don't worry anymore, we found it!"

"Yes, we, Harry, and I can't think of a better person to be celebrating with right now."


	11. Questions and Answers

A beep from outside Janeway's ready room told her that Ensign Wix had arrived. She sat down with her cup of coffee in her hand. "Come in," she said, loud enough for the Ensign to hear.

The door opened and the Fairie entered. "I've written my report, Captain. Mr. Tuvok told me to deliver it to you personally."

"Yes, I wanted to hear the story from your perspective," the Captain said, taking the PADD that contained Danni's report. "Sit down, Ensign."

""It was like nothing I ever could have imagined, Captain," Danni started slowly, taking a seat. "One minute most people were just injured. And the next, they were ill. It's hard to explain the stress of it all," Danni admitted. "But there's something about being in those high- stress situations. It's enlightening," she said, her eyes smiling a little.

"Go on," the Captain urged her.

"Well, I found it testing of my character," Danni said, her brows knitting as she thought about it. "I wanted to lay down and forget it all, but there's no way anyone could do that, is there, Captain?"

"Well, this K'Vosh character certainly didn't have a hard time abandoning you and Ensign Kim to deal with all of this yourselves," the Captain pointed out.

"That's true," Danni acknowledged. "I hope we never see him again." She paused for a moment. "When Chakotay volunteered to test out the serum, I almost didn't let him. That was another trial for me. My personal feelings almost prevented me from testing the cure. I'm not sure what to do about that."

"Danni," the Captain said, leaning forward. "All of us feel that way from time to time. But that's not always a bad thing. Sometimes having those personal feelings can save the person we love from something that could be dangerous to them."

"Thank you, Captain," Danni said replied, smiling happily. She stood up to leave.

"Oh, Danni," the Captain stopped the ensign in her tracks. Danni turned around again.

"Yes, Captain?"

"Harry has told me that K'vosh spoke of other fairies that live in this sector of the Delta Quadrant. Would you like us to take a few days to search for them?"

Danni paused, running the tip of her tongue along her lips before answering. "Captain, I've come to love Starfleet," she started. "And the people in Starfleet are my family now. I don't know what would happen if I ventured to seek out the fairies here. I think… I think that's a temptation I'd rather avoid."

"_He's a very sick man." -- The Doctor_

Harry walked down the corridor, heading for Tom Paris' quarters. He rang for the young helmsman, but the door didn't open. "Oh, come on, Tom, open up!" He banged on the door, much to the chagrin of the Lieutenant inside.

"What?" Tom asked as the door opened. He was dressed in his blue, pinstripe pajamas and blinking his eyes groggily. "I was just getting to sleep."

"Can I come in?" Harry asked anxiously. "There's something I want to talk to you about."

"Oh, Harry, does it have to be now?"

"I'd prefer if it was," Harry replied.

"Fine," Tom sighed. "Just let me put on my uniform again."

A few minutes later, Tom emerged once again, this time in his red-and-black uniform. Harry stepped past him and settled down on the couch. Tom rolled his eyes and sat down beside his best friend, throwing one arm carelessly across the back of the couch.

"What's wrong now, Harry?" He asked, sensing his friend's nervousness.

"I've been thinking about Libby a lot for the past few days-" Harry started out.

"Harry, Harry, Harry, when are you going to forget about her? She's only six or seven decades away," Tom chastised him.

"So you don't think I would be cheating at all if I-"

"Heck no!" Tom fairly shouted. "As if that wasn't what I've been saying all along."

For once, Harry didn't argue that Tom flirted with practically _every _girl and that he had no respect for relationships. Instead, he was already heading out of the room and down the hall for the turbo lifts. Tom heaved a heavy sigh and went back to bed, without bothering to take off his uniform.

As for Harry, he was stuck in a turbo lift that was too slow. Pacing the floor, he flew from the small structure as soon as it's doors opened to deck 12. It wasn't far down the hall that he noticed the quarters marked with the number for Ensign Wix. Having agonized over his feelings all night long, and having wondered if he should make them known, he had memorized Danni's room number. Now he halted in front of the structure, not knowing whether or not to carry through on his plans.

"Hi, Harry," a voice chirped from behind him. Danni breezed past, her arms full of flowers. The door opened for her and she entered her quarters. Harry followed her in.

"Where'd you get those?" He asked, his immediate worry being the thought that she had moved on.

"Oh, Neelix and I have been working on them in the Arboretum," Danni replied, laying the blossoms down on the table. "I only picked a few, really. I'm going to have to save up replicator rations to replicate a vase," she mused. Picking up one of the flowers, she held it out to Harry. "Look, Neelix and I replicated rose seeds," she said, pressing the pink blossom into Harry's hand. Harry twiddled the flower in his fingers as Danni flung herself on the couch, crossing one leg over the other carelessly.

"What did you come around here for?" She asked with what she hoped seemed like a light-hearted grin.

"I came to talk to you about…" Harry cleared his throat. "Well, about something that happened to me last night."

"Good galaxy, Harry, what can have happened to you now?" The Fairie wondered. "Am I mistaken, or did we not just solve a crisis?"

Harry stepped across the room boldly and sat down on the couch next to her. "It's nothing that serious," he defended his earlier statement. "I was just… thinking. About things. And then I changed my mind about something."

Danni eyed him, but leaned slightly forward, "Yeah? What kind of something?"

"Well, it's going to be forever until we get home," Harry began. "And well, people are going to move on."

"That's certainly true," Danni acknowledged. "I can only imagine what kind of forgetting my ex-boyfriend is doing back home."

"You have a boyfriend?" Harry's eyebrows raised incredulously.

"Goodness, no," Danni shook her head. "We both agreed to move on if either of us were ever lost on a mission. And anyway, I have the feeling we weren't going to work out." She sighed. "But the best part about it is, I'm not worrying that he'll be angry if… well, if it really takes sixty or seventy years to get home, I'm going to need companionship."

Harry looked down at his hands, and felt a hot blush creep up his neck to his cheeks. Again. He felt his head bob up and down in a nod. "I'll need it, too."

"You have a girlfriend," Danni reminded him. "Her name is Libby."

"Libby's only six or seven decades away," Harry shot back.

Danni was quiet for a moment, then. Harry watched her bite her lip and look away, then her eyes would flicker over at him, darting back and forth under her lashes. Finally, she burst out, "I'm still sorry."

Harry knew what she was talking about immediately. He reached out and laid his hand over one of hers. She looked up.

"I'm not," Harry said sincerely. His hand slowly crawled up her shoulder and he tugged her closer to him. She opened her lips to say something-perhaps to protest-but Harry grabbed them with his own. Her grip on her emotions dissolved and she melted limply into his kisses.

"You still sorry?" Harry murmured as he pulled away.

Danni's eyes were laughing and leaking out tears at the same time. "Never."

**-FIN-**

* * *

_I'm not thaaaaat great at fluffyness, but I wish, wish, wish I was! I'm working on the romance stuff. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story, and I hope you'll keep an eye out for a sequel, which will deal even furthur into Danni's relationship with both Harry and Chakotay._

_Quick note: It is likely that nothing will ever come out of the Neelix/Danni thing. For the simple reason that Neelix actually drives me up a wall. =DD  
_

_Thank you so so so so so so much for all the faithful reveiws! I love you guys!  
_


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